TIFF 2019 Review: Bombay Rose

On the streets of Bombay, a Hindu girl discovers love with a Muslim boy; however, the needs of her family and societal pressures threaten to destroy the budding romance.

Bollywood fantasies provide escapism for those experiencing personal hardships and poverty on the streets of Bombay, in particular for a young club dancer and a flower seller.  The trouble is that the former is Hindu and has a family to support while the latter is Muslim and struggling to find work.

Multiple storylines are in play with most interesting being about the young sister of the club dancer and an orphaned deaf boy as there is a lot of cleverness with the action and dialogue.  The central tale involving the club dancer and the flower seller is so filled with melodrama that their characters and situations are less interesting.  There is some beautiful imagery, especially, when the two of them imagine themselves as Bollywood stars.

A variety of animation techniques are used with the most effective being the blank screen being transformed into an actual scene.   Other methods involve the setting going from colour to black and white or taking on the perspective of a rose. However, all of these different approaches are as disjointed as the narrative, thereby, never achieving the desired interconnectivity amongst the various characters and their situations.